Preview: FC Augsburg v Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace travel to Germany for their final pre-season outing of the summer against Bundesliga side FC Augsburg.

The Eagles will be looking to bounce back from their 3-2 defeat at Brentford last time out, which brought an end to their unbeaten summer run.

Tony Pulis’ men had previously secured victories over GAK Graz, Philadelphia Union, Richmond Kickers and Forest Green Rovers, before the Bees inflicted their first loss of a busy warm-up schedule.

On paper, Augsburg will present Palace with their toughest pre-season test yet – ideal preparation with their Barclays Premier League opener against Arsenal now just one week away.

The Fuggerstädter finished 8th in the German top flight last season, just one point and one place outside the Europa League qualification spots.

Augsburg’s tally of 52 points from 34 Bundesliga games also saw them finish just nine points adrift of Champions League qualifiers Bayer Leverkusen, so they will be no pushovers this afternoon as they warm up for their 2014/15 curtain-raiser against Hoffenheim in a fortnight’s time.

TEAM NEWS

FC Augsburg: Manager Markus Weinzierl has added plenty of attacking talent to his squad over the summer and the home faithful will no doubt be eager to see them in action at the SGL Arena today.

Tim Matavz, a £3.5m capture from PSV Eindhoven, is the biggest name in that list and arrives in Germany with a burgeoning reputation after bagging 14 Eredivisie goals last term.

The Slovenian has been joined at Augsburg by fellow frontmen Shawn Parker and Nikola Djurdjic, who will also be looking to stake their claim for starting berths.

Crystal Palace: Eagles boss Tony Pulis has taken a squad of 18 players to Germany this weekend, with the likes of Damien Delaney, Jonny Williams and Jerome Thomas all remaining in south London as a precaution with slight injury concerns.

That means Brede Hangeland could line-up alongside Scott Dann for the first time at the heart of the Palace defence, while at the other end Fraizer Campbell will be looking to add to the hat-trick he netted against Forest Green Rovers last weekend.

Follow our official Twitter account @CPFC for live text updates from the SGL Arena from 2.30pm BST.

A full report from Palace’s final friendly of the summer will be available to read on cpfc.co.uk straight after the final whistle, with highlights and post-match reaction from inside the camp also available in the coming days.